


A Simple Conversation

by overlycompensatedapprentice



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Charity Barnum is a good mom, Family Feels, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Mothering charity, Other, and if they touch him they die, and literally, dad! pt, mentions of child abuse, phillip's parents are awful dear lord, phillips parents need to figure out, poor baby i need to leave him alone, pt is ready to fighttt, that the barnums have adopted phillip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 11:20:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13588965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overlycompensatedapprentice/pseuds/overlycompensatedapprentice
Summary: Phillip runs into his parents on his way home, and they try a new tactic to get Phillip back, P.T. and Charity step in to help, and Phillip never realized how much he needed a mother (aka adopted circus mom Charity Barnum)





	A Simple Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> If y'all haven't read See The Other Side (another thing I wrote) this does have some references to it- so if you wanna read that it'may help with context, not necessary tho
> 
> Enjoy!

Phillip strolled down the unusually quiet New York City street, feeling pretty at peace with things. The circus was doing well, and he was happy. There wasn’t much more that he could ask for. He was alone tonight, as Anne wasn’t feeling well, so he was anxious to get home to her. It didn’t seem like anything too serious, just a headache, but still, he wanted to see if she was okay. 

What he had not expected that evening, was for his parents to be out on a walk through the streets as well. Phillip froze when he saw them. It had been some time now since they had last spoken, and he wondered if he could just put on his hat and disappear into the crowd of people that had just flooded the streets, coming out of the theater to Phillip’s left, without attracting their notice. 

His wish was not granted. 

Phillip froze when his father said his name, his voice full of the anger that Phillip remembered all too well from his childhood. It was the kind of anger that had gotten him bruises that stayed for days, weeks even. 

“Father,” Phillip said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. This was a public street, and he could very well walk out of this conversation whenever he wanted, he told himself. There was no reason to be afraid. Yet, despite his own sound reasoning, his fear lingered.

“We need to talk,” Phillip’s father grabbed him roughly by the arm and pulled him onto a side street, where they could ‘talk’ in peace. 

“Whatever about?” Phillip asked innocently, knowing full well what they wanted to say to him. It had been thrown his way half a dozen times. He was used to hearing it all, by now, but this time the circus wasn’t around to protect him from the harsh words. 

“Phillip,” His mother’s tone sent a chill down his spine too. Even at the circus, it hadn’t been this bad. And this time, Phillip was alone. “You need to get your head on straight. You need to come home, right now.” 

“I have a home, thank you very much,” Phillip said bravely. “And you can’t order me around anymore. Miss having someone to smack around?” As soon as the words left his lips, he knew his parents’ wrath would be uncontrollable. What had happened within their house was not something to be thrown back at them as an insult in a public place, he had been taught that quite a while ago. 

Still, Phillip wasn’t entirely prepared when his father slapped him across the face, hard. He stumbled backwards, reeling from the shock of it. No one around them stepped in, knowing all too well that the lives of those in high society were their own to deal with. Phillip was terrified now, not sure what he should say or do. There was nowhere to run. 

Phillip’s father caught his arm again, squeezing it so tight it hurt, preventing him from moving back any further. “Did that get your head on straight, boy?” He snapped. 

“We’re doing this because we love you, Phillip,” his mother said. Phillip could hear the malice behind her words as she said them. To Phillip, that was the biggest lie she’d ever told. And she’d told some pretty big lies. Phillip would have laughed if he wasn’t so terrified. “Now, you’re coming home where you belong.” 

“Oh, are you?” He managed. “Because I don’t think you’ve ever loved me. And I will go nowhere with you.” 

He didn’t know where all this bravery was coming from, but he was glad that he was no longer such a coward that he gave into everything to please them. He knew bravery wouldn’t get him too far though, not in the face of the influence that his parents held. 

His mother’s hand was the one that slammed into him this time. She backhanded him across the other side of his face, so hard that Phillip let out a small cry. He stumbled back further, right into someone. Someone that just happened to be P.T. Barnum, who was glaring at Phillip’s parents with an anger that even they couldn’t rival. 

Phineas pulled Phillip behind him, standing between him and his parents. 

Phillip felt some of the panic and fear leave, enough for him to be able to think rationally again. He knew Phineas would be able to handle his parents. Still, he definitely was not going to be leaving. His head still spun from the beating, and Phillip wasn’t sure he could make it very far. 

“This is none of your business,” Phillip’s father said to Phineas. “Scram.” 

“Oh, I believe it is very much my business,” Phineas growled. Phillip had seen Phineas angry at his parents before, when they had come to the circus, but never to this degree. Phineas looked like he was about to actually murder Phillip’s parents with that sledgehammer they had simply joked about the last time. “I don’t know how in this world or any other you could do that to your own son, but if you lay a hand on him again, I swear…” Phineas looked like he couldn’t think of anything painful enough. 

“You would threaten me?” Phillip’s father asked incredulously. Phillip would not have taken any threat to his father seriously either, had it been given a year ago, but now he knew that Phineas would make good on anything he threatened his father with. “How I choose to discipline my son is my decision.” 

“HE IS NOT YOUR SON!” Phineas shouted, so loudly that Phillip flinched. His mother and father looked taken aback. “How dare you treat him like that?” 

The people on the street were giving them a wide berth now, looking over their shoulders to see the spectacle play out. Phillip’s father seemed to be at a loss for words at the moment, and Phillip hoped it would stay that way. He wanted them both to just go, so that he could be left alone. 

Phillip’s mother pushed past Phineas, making her way towards Phillip, who was practically using him as a shield at this point, but another hand grabbed her arm and pushed her back, hard. 

Charity Barnum had been with Phineas when they heard the commotion, and had promised to wait while her husband saw what was going on, but had come to investigate when she heard the shouting. When she saw what was going on, she understood instantly. It was no secret that the high class snobs were less than parental toward their own children, Charity herself had experienced it to some degree, but she was lucky. She had never seen it this bad. 

And it was Phillip who was subject to it. Charity had gotten the notion that Phillip’s parents had hurt him, but seeing it happen, right here in front of her, made fiery rage boil up within her. She wanted to slap Phillip’s parents and see how they liked it. She wanted to hurt them as badly as they hurt their son. 

“I think that is quite enough,” she said so sharply that it actually stung the ears to hear her words. She put a protective arm around Phillip. “You are making fools of yourselves, trying to hit your own child on a public street. What sort of monstrous people do that? Phillip is old enough to make his own decisions, and it is hardly surprising that he chooses to stay away from you. How dare you treat our boy like that. How. Dare. You.” Those last repeated words were filled with such venom that Phillip was surprised that his parents weren’t poisoned. 

“You keep calling him ‘our boy’ like he’s your son,” Phillip’s mother said, sounding a bit at a loss for insults to throw at them. “You are not his mother. And we love Phillip.” 

“Actually,” Phillip managed to look at his parents bravely, head still spinning, but he managed it all the same. “She’s more of a mother than you ever were. And you do not love me one bit.” 

“No mother hits their own child,” Charity hissed. “No mother leaves her son to die in a hospital bed over a disagreement about joining the circus. There is no love in your heart for him, or at all for that matter. And you are not his mother. Now get lost, before Phineas and I decide to give you a taste of your own medicine.” 

That seemed to truly get the point across that Phineas and Charity Barnum weren’t going anywhere. And that neither was Phillip. So his parents left, grumbling under their breaths about how he would regret his decision later. Phillip knew that he would not, but he also knew that there was no point arguing with his parents, who had a view of the world that was so twisted that they could not see the good in anyone who wasn’t just like them.

Phillip managed a tired smile for both Phineas and Charity, not sure how he would have managed without them. “I am glad that you came by when you did,” he said, knowing that they would only scold him gently if he tried to thank them. 

“I can’t believe your parents,” Phineas muttered, glaring after them with surprising intensity. “I just can’t....” He turned to Phillip. “Are you hurt?” 

“I... I’m not sure.” His cheek still stung from where his mother had hit him, and the ring on her finger would probably leave a bruise the next morning. 

“Come home with us for tonight,” Charity said gently. “I can look at your face, and you can have somewhere to sleep.” 

Phillip hesitated for a moment. “Anne’s sick. I wanted to go check on her. She might worry too if I don’t come back home tonight.”

“I’ll make sure she knows,” Charity said. “Why don’t you and Phin go on ahead, and I’ll go tell Anne. Your place isn’t far from here. I’ll check on her too.” 

Phillip nodded, knowing they wouldn’t let him go on alone. “Alright.” 

He hoped Phineas would understand that he really didn’t want to talk about it, but he knew that the chances of that were slim. He reached into his pockets to make sure that he had a few pieces of candy to give to the girls and nodded at Phineas to lead the way. 

On the walk back home, Phineas didn’t ask Phillip about what had happened. He knew the boy needed some processing time. He would carefully bring it up later, when it seemed Phillip was ready to talk. What he had seen that night made him sick, and he hadn’t even seen the whole thing. Who knew how much Phillip had endured before he had stepped in? He couldn’t imagine what Phillip must be feeling. 

When they arrived at the Barnum’s home, Phillip managed a smile for both the girls, handing out the pieces of candy he was carrying. Both girls greeted him with a tight embrace that Phillip admittedly needed right then. They didn’t question why he was there, they knew enough about Phillip’s parents, and when Phineas told them to go back upstairs and play by themselves for a while, they listened without protest.

Phineas walked into the kitchen without a word and brought Phillip a glass of whiskey. It was not necessarily a habit he approved of, but what they had just experienced definitely called for a glass. 

Phillip gulped the glass down faster than usual, ignoring the familiar burning sensation it left in his throat. “Thanks,” he said. His hand went up to his cheek, and he blinked rapidly, trying to brush away the memory and everything that came with it. 

Phineas watched him carefully, deciding whether or not to broach the subject. He decided that talking was not a good thing right then, so he simply put an arm around him. A touch that didn’t hurt. 

“I’ll be alright,” Phillip reassured. He didn’t want anyone to worry. Now that his parents were no longer around, he knew he would be fine, once he had shaken off the unsettling feeling of fear that had made its way into his heart. He hated it, and hoped it would wear off soon. But his cheek still stung where his parents had hit him. 

He saw Phineas’s expression and knew he wasn’t convinced. “Phillip…” He didn’t seem to know what to say. 

“You don’t have to say anything,” Phillip said quickly. He didn’t need to hear empty words of comfort, even though he knew Phineas rarely used empty words at all. “I was just taken by surprise, that is all. I did not think I would have to see them again, but I was somewhat foolish to believe that.”

“I know I don’t have to say anything, Phillip,” Phineas said gently. “And nobody thought you were going to see them again, not after what happened last time. But Phillip, that couldn’t have been easy for you. Has it happened…” 

“Before?” Phillip finished. He hesitated before saying. “For as long as I can remember.” He would never admit it, but part of him actually wanted to talk about it with someone who cared about him. He had never told anyone, not even Anne, how bad it had been. 

“What happened tonight?” Phineas asked in a soft voice. 

Phillip, as usual, wasn’t sure where to begin. “I saw my parents out while I was walking tonight. I was hoping I could just hide from them, but of course, they saw me right away.” 

Phineas nodded understandingly, waiting for Phillip to finish the story. He had a fair idea of what Phillip’s parents would have wanted from him, the same thing they always had, for their son to fall back into the place where they could control him. He was proud of Phillip for having stood up to them.

“When I realized I couldn’t avoid the conversation, I was hoping, since the play had just gotten out and there was a crowd of people around, that they wouldn’t try anything, but they pulled me onto a side street, so that we could ‘talk,’” 

Phillip put a lot of sarcastic emphasis on the word talk. Phineas couldn’t blame him. All of the interactions he had seen between Phillip and his mother and father were less than conversational. 

“They asked me to come back home with them, as usual, ” Phillip continued, “When I told them that I didn’t want to, and they really just missed someone to shove around, then…” 

He didn’t have to continue for Phineas to understand. He wanted to tell Phillip that the young man deserved better parents, but for all intents and purposes, he considered himself and Charity as Phillip’s parents, and not the Carlyles. 

“My father was first,” Phillip said. “Then my mother. Although I think you saw my mother.” 

Phineas nodded. “You don’t have to explain more,” he said quietly. This couldn’t be an easy discussion for Phillip, and now that Phineas knew how the fight had began- not that he had any doubt that Phillip was innocent- he could do… something? Not tell the police, they wouldn’t do a thing. But there had to be some way that he could ensure the Carlyles couldn’t hurt Phillip again. The sledgehammer idea was sounding more and more appealing. 

As though he could tell what Phineas was thinking, Phillip shook his head. “There’s really nothing to be done about it,” he said, in a voice that showed he had resigned himself to mistreatment from his parents a long time ago. “I do not think anyone can change the way they behave around me, there’s very few people who would tell them to change at all. It’s just the way things have always been.” 

“That doesn’t mean they should be that way,” Phineas said firmly. His own father had never had much to give him, but he had never treated Phineas with the sort of hate he had seen from Phillip’s father today. “It’s wrong, Phillip. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely disgusting.” 

“I know it is,” Phillip said. “You don’t think I know that? I know it’s wrong but we can’t change it.” 

Before Phineas could retort with how that was hardly a correct mindset to have either, there came the sound of the front door opening, and Charity stepped into the room a few moments later. She smiled at Phillip, ignoring the tension in the room for the moment. “I told Anne that you were going to stay over tonight. She’s doing just fine, and said that you shouldn’t worry about her.”

Phillip nodded. “Alright, thank you, Charity.” 

Charity nodded to him with an affectionate, gentle smile. “Phin,” she addressed her husband. “Can you go put our little monkeys to bed while I take a look at Phillip’s face?”

Phineas nodded. “I’ll be down later,” he said, squeezing Phillip’s shoulder as he left and giving his wife a kiss as he passed her. 

Charity gathered up some ice in a towel, and gently pressed it against Phillip’s cheek. He hissed in pain at the sudden cold, but then the ice started to soothe his stinging cheek and he felt a little better. “Thank you,” he said with a sigh, closing his eyes to shut out the world for a minute. 

Charity didn’t ask him to talk about what happened. She understood enough to glean the gist. He could talk when he was ready. Right now he clearly just needed a moment to sort out the thoughts in his head. 

“Charity?” Phillip asked abruptly. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but did your parents ever…”

“No,” Charity said. “My parents were not fantastic, but they never did anything to me as horrible as your parents did to you. They share that same sense of superiority, but beyond that, they simply left me to my own devices. Well, once I married Phin, at least. They tried to control me as a child, sent me to finishing school to teach me to be a ‘proper lady,’ but they never once came and tried to drag me back.” 

Phillip nodded, not sure where to steer the conversation. Charity pulled the icy towel away to check his face. It looked better to her now, but there was a small gash that Phillip’s mother’s ring had left. “Oh, Phillip.”

“I’ll get you something to put on that,” she said, but he quickly shook his head.

“It’s fine,” he said. 

Phillip didn’t want to draw any more attention to what had happened than what was necessary, and he also didn’t want to be left all to himself, at least not yet. 

What he wanted more than anything was a little company. Charity saw it on his face instantly. It was a sort of childish vulnerability that the girls showed sometimes when they were upset. She figured that for Phillip, showing that vulnerability when he was younger had only earned him a slap across the face. 

She settled down in the chair opposite him. “Alright,” she said. “Just take care that you don’t get too much dirt on it.” 

Phillip nodded. The awkward silence descended once again, and Phillip wondered if he had been wrong to want her to stay. Surely, she had better things to be doing than keeping him company when he wasn’t even talking. Charity looked at his face, and gave him an understanding nod, showing him she knew exactly what he had meant when he had shaken his head and said it was fine. He was most certainly not fine. 

“It is like I have always told you,” she said finally, “You always have a place here with us, no matter what. You were brave today, and you should not think any less of yourself because of what happened. If you want to talk about it...” 

Phillip wondered if he did. Part of him wanted to retreat under bed covers and hide. Another part of him wanted to spill to Charity. Not just the events of tonight, but everything. 

“I wouldn't know where to start,” he said, as he tried to get the words out. Maybe if he told someone who cared for him as a mother should, someone like Charity, the pain wouldn’t be so…present. 

“Start wherever you like,” said Charity patiently. She did not mind waiting, no matter how long it took. 

“What happened tonight....” Phillip started. “It wasn’t as bad as most.” 

He just started to ramble. He didn’t hold much back. He told Charity about his young life, something he’d never told anyone. He told her about how his parents would hit him, kick him, leave him with cuts and bruises and scars. He told her about how, when they were especially angry, they would lock him in the cellar for hours, even sometimes days on end. He told her about the one time that Phillip had seen his father drunk, and he had been knocked unconscious when he had been hit with a wine bottle. 

Phillip hadn’t realized a tear was forming in his eye until it splashed onto the back of his hand. He quickly wiped it away and went on. It wasn’t like he was crying over the hitting. He had gotten used to it long ago. It just felt so good to get out the emotion that Phillip had been trying to drown in alcohol since the age of seventeen. Looking at the love in Charity’s eyes, a love he’d never experienced before this, that was what had made the tear fall. 

As Phillip talked, Charity got angrier and angrier. Not at Phillip, of course. Obviously, he had been bottling this up for his entire life, and she was happy to let him talk about it. But she never knew that she could feel this much rage at two people as she now felt at Phillip’s parents. It wasn’t like Charity Barnum to get angry, but boy did she wish that she had punched Phillip’s parents halfway down the block when she’d had a chance. 

“How could they?” she asked. “How could they possibly do that to their own child?” What had happened to Phillip was horrific, and she wished that someone had been there to step in and help. She wondered how someone as kind and wonderful as Phillip had ended up with parents that awful. “You deserved a childhood much better than that,” she said, glaring in the general direction of the Carlyle estate. “Nobody deserves a childhood like that.” 

Phillip shrugged. There was no point now, in talking about what he deserved and what he didn’t, the past was gone. What had happened would always be a part of him, and he did not think he would ever be able to face his parents in a civil conversation again, but he was alright with that. “There’s no changing what happened. The girls are lucky to have parents like you who care about them so much. And so am I.”

“And our girls are lucky to have such a wonderful, brave big brother,” Charity leaned over and hugged him tightly. “And Phin and I are lucky that we have a son now.” 

Phillip melted into the hug. He’d never really been hugged before he met Phineas and Charity, but now he couldn’t get enough of them. He had never admitted it out loud, but he was sure that Charity had figured out he liked them. Nothing much got past her, it was what made her such a good mother.

“It’s late,” Charity said after a while. She had just held him for a long time, sensing that was what he needed. Per usual, she was spot on. “You should get some sleep.” 

Phillip nodded, reluctantly pulling away. “I know what you’re going to say, but thank you.” 

“And I’ll say it again,” Charity said gently. “You don’t need to thank us for anything Phillip, it’s what family does. They look out for each other, and nobody touches our boy. Now, go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning.” 

Phillip stood. “Goodnight, Charity.” 

“Goodnight, Phillip.” 

Once he was lying down, it took Phillip a little while to fall asleep. He wondered how it was possible that he was feeling so much better so fast, after what had happened tonight. Maybe it was what he had needed all along, to talk to someone about what had happened to him. Someone like a mother, a mother he’d never had except for when he’d met the Barnums. 

Or maybe he was just going crazy. 

Whatever it was, it was more comforting than the blankets on the bed. More comforting than the soft glow of the streetlights outside the circus. More comforting than well… most things really. Except maybe Anne. 

Peace washed over Phillip, and he fell asleep knowing that he was safe, with his family sleeping in the next rooms and nothing but love in his heart


End file.
